Synergies between Urban-LEDS II and CoM SSA in a snapshot

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) is funded by the European Union and is the regional Covenant of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM). ICLEI Africa and ICLEI World Secretariats are key implementing partners, and UN-Habitat sits on the advisory board. The CoM SSA and the Urban-LEDS project are closely aligned; working together to address the shared objectives of accelerating energy access, tackling climate change mitigation and adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

To show how this collaboration works in practice, key synergies between Urban-LEDS ll and the CoM SSA include:

• Exploring multilevel governance approaches and identifying good practices, by engaging in discussions with all levels of governments, as opportunities arise. This work in Rwanda and South Africa is addressed via Urban-LEDS II, and CoM SSA focuses on countries across the African region.
• The provision of technical assistance and climate change accounting and reporting. Both the Urban-LEDS II and CoM SSA provide technical assistance to cities to achieve compliance with the GCoM requirements, following CoM SSA Guidelines.
• The implementation of climate action and access to finance is a hot topic. To this end the ICLEI World Secretariat leads on the global roll-out of the Transformative Actions Program (TAP), and builds partnerships with international and regional financing institutions, also to help project technical assistance in African cities. ICLEI Africa, in turn, provides training and support to local governments in developing robust project proposals; providing technical assistance in the design of implementation projects. UN-Habitat has proven experience in supporting local governments to successfully access Adaptation Fund resources – currently applying this support in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. An important element here is the need for facilitation between local governments and financing institutions on specific calls and potential opportunities; accessing finance and technical assistance from finance experts – offering a coherent support package.
• Information, knowledge sharing, the cross-pollination of technical outputs and assistance by relevant project teams to strengthen support on topics such as; developing a risk & vulnerability assessment, greenhouse gas inventory data collection and reporting, and multi-level governance, amongst others. Lessons from Urban-LEDS II have informed this work in CoM SSA.
• Peer-to-peer exchanges at co-hosted events, such as the Climate Chance Summits, Africities Summits, CCKZNCCC, and Resilient Cities Conferences, as well as the upcoming LOCS Conference in Africa. Again, experiences specific to Urban-LEDS II are shared, and used in peer exchanges with CoM SSA organised sessions.

Follow the link below for more information on synergies as have been mapped between CoM SSA and Urban-LEDS II.

CoM SSA – Urban-LEDS II Synergy Mapping